The Canadian Press
May 18, 1993
QUEBEC-ONTARIO REGIONAL GENERAL NEWS

TORONTO – A renowned psychiatrist who specialized in counselling Holocaust survivors has admitted having sex with a patient over a five-year period. Dr. Henry Fenigstein, 80, himself a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp, also admitted telling the victim she may be subjected to electric shock therapy by other doctors if she revealed their sexual relationship. Fenigstein pleaded guilty to professional misconduct Monday in front of a discipline panel of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The college revoked Fenigstein\’s licence. In a statement released after the ruling, the victim criticized the panel for not imposing the maximum fine of $5,000 on Fenigstein, which lawyers for the college had requested in addition to revoking his licence. She said that by not fining him the panel didn\’t send a clear message that doctor-patient sex won\’t be tolerated. Through his lawyer, Kirby Chown, Fenigstein apologized to the woman, who was in her early 20s at the time of the abuse between 1969-74. \”I would like to express on his behalf his deepest regret for the experiences she has been through,\’\’ Chown said, while a frail Fenigstein, who walks with a cane and is in poor health, sat with his head in his hands.

A statement of fact agreed upon by the accused and the college said that Fenigstein lured the young victim into having sex with him by telling her it was part of her treatment for severe depression, which made her suicidal. When the patient, feeling that Fenigstein wasn\’t helping her, asked to be referred to another doctor, Fenigstein warned her not to tell any other therapists of their sex. He told he\’d deny everything and that she may be subjected to electric shock therapy. The victim decided to come forward in January 1992. When Fenigstein was told of the allegations he immediately resigned from the college and stopped practising in his clinic in suburban North York, the panel was told.